The Python user interface of the elsA cfd software: a coupling framework for external steering layers
This work addresses usability and integration challenges for CFD software users, though it is incremental as it builds on existing software with a new interface layer.
The authors developed a Python user interface for the elsA CFD software to improve simulation specification and user experience, and extended it as a coupling framework for integrating external algorithms, which increased success in complex simulations.
The Python--elsA user interface of the elsA cfd (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software has been developed to allow users to specify simulations with confidence, through a global context of description objects grouped inside scripts. The software main features are generated documentation, context checking and completion, and helpful error management. Further developments have used this foundation as a coupling framework, allowing (thanks to the descriptive approach) the coupling of external algorithms with the cfd solver in a simple and abstract way, leading to more success in complex simulations. Along with the description of the technical part of the interface, we try to gather the salient points pertaining to the psychological viewpoint of user experience (ux). We point out the differences between user interfaces and pure data management systems such as cgns.